The Greatest Thing

Thomas Blood’s "The Greatest Thing" is a lighthearted and witty surrealist painting with a rich impressionistic floral touch. Aside from the unlikely physicality of the Magritte-inspired man's diced shoulder and torso, the image is made even more surreal by the way the slicing both mirrors and breaks up the picture's framing. The black lines separating the sill’s wood boards and the open windowpanes perfectly paralleling each other frame the bowler-hatted man with a degree of visual cohesion that is wonderfully interrupted by his dissected shoulder. However, symmetry is restored with the introduction of the bread loaf that finds its reflection in the man's unusual malformity. What I love most about this painting and what I believe makes it stand out from other surrealist works is the bucolic garden in the background. The tangled green branches and cherry blossom trees are told in an impressionistic style that recalls the very first iterations of modern art.

Thomas Blood’s "The Greatest Thing" is a lighthearted and witty surrealist painting with a rich impressionistic floral touch. Aside from the unlikely physicality of the Magritte-inspired man's diced shoulder and torso, the image is made even more surreal by the way the slicing both mirrors and breaks up the picture's framing. The black lines separating the sill’s wood boards and the open windowpanes perfectly paralleling each other frame the bowler-hatted man with a degree of visual cohesion that is wonderfully interrupted by his dissected shoulder. However, symmetry is restored with the introduction of the bread loaf that finds its reflection in the man's unusual malformity. What I love most about this painting and what I believe makes it stand out from other surrealist works is the bucolic garden in the background. The tangled green branches and cherry blossom trees are told in an impressionistic style that recalls the very first iterations of modern art.